Being a Plus Size Girl in Egypt

Misconception Vs. Reality

Being an overweight female in any part of the world isn’t a walk in the park, but in Egypt, things are taken to a new extreme.

1. You are used to be catcalled “batta” (Arabic for duck!), “bakabozza” (a degrading term for an overweight woman started by a certain movie as a joke) and “helwa bas tekhina” (beautiful but fat) as terms of street endearment, and further into the animal kingdom as the harassment worsens. Hint: Moo!
2. You can save yourself the misery and forget about having a walk, a jog, or, God forbid, a run on the street. If you’re not bothered by the looks, the stares, the stopping and pointing, the whispers or the catcalls, you will eventually call it a day with your first physical harassment and promise yourself to start saving for a treadmill.
3. Getting on any means of public transport with a lot of doubts, regrets and worries. If it’s a crowded bus and you have to stand, well, let’s just say that by the time you reach your destination, an average of 30 people will have brushed against you, by accident, of course, because look at you! You’re too much of a person. Literally, the extra fleshy pieces on your body is considered by the general population to be unimportant, indestructible, and you are already bothering everyone else taking up more space than you need. If you’re lucky enough to find a seat next to someone, you’ll have to squeeze yourself up, and yes, any body part that is squeezable, to avert the inevitable knee or shoulder lean from the person next to you, while he sits with his legs open wide as if he has a severe case of skin irritation down there.
4. Walking up or down a flight of stairs making sure you let any guy behind you get past you, because you know better than this “ladies first” thing. Yikes!
5. Shopping for clothes. Again, this is a struggle for all overweight women all around the world, but only in Egypt can an overweight saleswoman look down upon you, scrutinize your body from head to toe, then look you in the eye and say, “We don’t have this in your size,” with emphasis on “your”. If you manage to find garments that actually fit, you’ll find that they’re either in the wrong color or cost quarter your paycheck.
6. Getting hungry on the street on your way back from work or school? You’d better wait till you go home, because a fat woman eating on the street is equally regarded as a fat woman in bikini; obscene. I mean, you’re fat, you can’t be eating like normal people. Go have some lettuce or something! Eww!
7. Being automatically referred to as “madaaam”, you know, as in “Mrs.” Why? Simple; because only married women have an excuse to be fat. It is known. (Game of Thrones style)
8. Getting constantly reminded of your abhorring state of body by your mother’s friends or friends of the family in general, who allow themselves to pry into your life and claim that they know everything going on with you, and within you. They usually never miss to stress on the importance of losing weight saying the inevitable “3ayzin nefra7 beeki b2a”, which translates to, “We would like you to get married because you being fat and single is such a burden on everyone else.”
9. Every physical ailment is blamed on your weight. You go to an ophthalmologist for an eye test, suddenly he is discussing your weight. When did that become acceptable? You are only allowed to address my weight if it is affecting my health with regards do your specialization, because last time I checked, we were not a couple of best friends having a chat over a cup of coffee. Don't get me wrong, sometimes being overweight does affect health, but it's not by any means an excuse for doctors of all specialties to take the easy way out and blame the weight for each and every physical ailment.
10. Last but not least, if people here do accept your weight, you are expected to be curvy in all the right places. "You are chubby? Well at least you're a buxom with great boobs. Oh wait, you are not? Poor thing, you have a great sense of humor, though.*awkward smile* " Great, thank you for making me more self-conscious now than before. I must have missed curvaceous molding day.

Women come in all sizes, and each one is entitled complete freedom over her own body. Next time someone bothers you, shove your fabulous shapely fingers up their, well, throat.

P.S. The above article was first published in The AlexandErian Magazine in 2015. I added a couple of points to the original.
http://www.thealexanderian.com/being-a-plus-size-girl-in-egypt/